A "Bad Back" Week

This past week I have been in a lot of pain. I apparently pulled a shoulder muscle again in my upper back, the pain of which then got continually worse for the next five days until I was in the ER with blotchy vision and pain stronger than I have ever had before. I was sure I had slipped a disc. 6 years ago I was diagnosed with arthritis in my neck and a couple bulging discs, for which I went to physical therapy. That has worked for me up until now. Over the past year in Africa the pain was getting more easily provoqued, especially after riding on the bad roads. It was one of the medical reason we decided it was time to leave Africa and move back to the US where I could hopefully slow down the process and have better access to medical care when things got bad. However the past month of moving out of our house, dealing with our luggage, traveling on the plane, and unpacking hundreds of boxes which we had put in storage here in the US, put extra strain on my back, finally culminating in another pain crisis. Thanks to some new medications given to me by the ER doctor, and some rest, I am feeling better. It seems to just be another pulled muscle, which aparently triggered a migrain, my first. So I am back to being more careful, doing some physical therapy on a daily basis at home (with the help of Jim).